Some people think that printed books are no longer needed in a digital era because all writing can be stored electronically. Others think that printed books will still play an important role. Discuss both and give your own opinion.

Stepping into the digital era, people have more difficulty to make choices over things such as reading. This essay will analyze why printed books will never be replaced by digital books.

For lots of people, printed books are themselves a kind of physical beauty. Having a book with hardcover is like having a paint of my favorite artist hanging on my wall. Every time before I read, I can gently touch the cover of the book, feel the weight of the book, listen to the fraction of the pages and smell the fragrant of the ink. However, with a digital copy, every character is made of pixels which are lifeless and boring, making reading lose its original sprit. There are also a great proportion of people who, after reading the books on their kindle or iPad, purchase hardcovers of books simply because they want a more tangible form of books.

In addition, e-books are not simply a replacement of paper books but a totally different experience. For every single book, I can read it on iPad, or buy a printed version in the bookstore. The content I read has no difference, but it is the medium that affects my feeling. Like watching movie in the theater or on the computer and smartphone, they all have their own advantages, and I would have different experience with different ways.

Some people may point out that paper books are not environmentally-friendly, since they consume wood. However, the electronic devices also need lots of natural resources to produce, for example to make batteries. Thus, e-reader is actually not more green than the printed book itself.

Admittedly, developing technology may produce more advanced way to read in the future, but printed books will never die.